ABOUt
About ABQ Imagine Institute
ABQ Imagine Institute combines professional instruction, a supportive community, and a fun, creative environment to help students of all ages explore their full potential in acting and improv.
Founded by Holly Adams and Mary Ashley Bannister, ABQ Imagine Institute brings decades of experience in theater, film, and improv to Albuquerque. We believe that acting is not just for performers—it’s a tool for communication, confidence, collaboration, and personal growth.
Our classes are designed for beginners through professional performers, with techniques rooted in the Meisner method, scene study, and interactive improv. Every student leaves our programs with skills that extend beyond the stage, including self-expression, resilience, and teamwork.
Meet the Instructors
Learn from experienced performers and educators with deep backgrounds in theater, improv, and film.
Holly Adams, Founder & Instructor - Meisner-Based Scene Study
Holly Adams has been working in the entertainment industry since the age of 13. She began her career as a ballerina, living a gypsy lifestyle for over 20 years, moving from San Francisco to Milwaukee and finally New York City, dancing her way across the globe.
Her first acting role was the lead as “The Girl” in the short film Betaville, which earned her a cult following and roles in nearly 20 other underground films in New York. In 1994, Holly wrote, directed, and starred in Nymphomania, which was picked up by the British Film Institute and opened their History of the Avant-Garde series video entitled The Cinema of Transgression. Nymphomania has screened four times at the Museum of Modern Art (2018 and 2025), and Shadows of Waste screened at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood in 2022 as part of the Silicon Beach Film Festival.
Now living in Albuquerque, NM, where up to 30% film tax incentives are available, Holly has written, directed, and produced short films including Hot Dog, Here Boy, Plots, Leather Kittens Gone Bad, An Unlikely Hero, The Gift, The Man-App, Shadows of Waste, and a music video for a Los Angeles pop star. She is developing a musical version of her feature film The Man-App, a romantic comedy where you can have “the man of your dreams at the touch of a button.” Holly is currently in post-production on her first feature film, an action-crime road picture, No Place, cast almost entirely with New Mexico talent, which will play the festival circuit throughout 2026.
Mary Ashley Bannister, Founder & Instructor - Improv
Mary Ashley Bannister’s love for improv was sparked in high school as a theater major at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, a less glamorous version of the FAME school in Lexington, KY. Many years later in Los Angeles, she became slightly obsessive and studied at IO West, Second City Hollywood, UCB, The Pack Theater, WE Improv, and MI Westside, along with many workshops and master classes with some of the world’s best improvisers.
Her favorite teacher, Holly Laurent, taught her that the most captivating things about a performer are often the things that make them unique, which they are most afraid of showing others. Mary Ashley also performed regularly around Los Angeles on a musical improv team and a monoscenes team. Here in Albuquerque, she has taken classes at the Box and ImprovNM.
She believes strongly in the power of improv for communication, self-confidence, resilience, collaboration, risk-taking, and, of course, the friends we make along the way.
Jenette Isaacson, Instructor - Acting for Young Actors
A member of Basement Films she has created three different film series. She has appeared in independent films, Hollywood films, and one Bollywood film.
She has taught acting to groups ranging from five years old to adult for 15 years.